What’s in a kicker? Find out how to elevate your idea now…

A good idea is a great place to start – people have them every day, but out of the thousands of people that approach Startup Giants for funding, you’ll need a kicker to suddenly make your idea stand out way above the rest. So what’s a kicker anyway?

Keen to know?

Honestly, we’re looking for what we call a ‘kicker’. In short it’s what makes a good idea, even better. It elevates the initial idea’s offering to a much higher status of marketable potential.

I think a lot of people when trying to come up with a new concept assume that their idea has to be completely original, which is just not the case. Just look at the mobile phone market, Samsung vs. Apple – they’re both very similar but pertaining to a different crowd with succinct but differing preferences.

A kicker would be Apple when they launched the smart phone – mobiles had been around for years, but not one with lifestyle apps on board…

When someone comes to us with an idea, we look into the marketplace at the potential company’s competitors and also brands that are aligned with them. This is intrinsic research to us because there are two parts to a new idea that we need to strike off in able to move forwards.

why hasn’t it been done already?

if it’s so good, how quickly could your competitors jump on the band wagon and roll something out given that they’re already established?

We often find that the best Founders are the people who have worked from the ground up and know their business inside out. It’s no good spending an hour looking at an industry, having an idea and coming to us to help make it a reality. We need you to be an out-and-out expert in your niche. It’s the only way to ensure that you can react very quickly to change and be incredibly solution focused to handle matters which may or may not be out of your control.It’s only from being an expert in your chosen area of trade that you’ll be able to bend or change the rules of your business, and it’s often with that knowledge that the kicker to elevate your idea comes shining through.

But what if I don’t know what my kicker is?

Racked your brains and can’t think of anything else to add? Have no fear, that’s why our resident team of business experts are here to pitch in, guide you through the development process and shine a light on potential kickers.

That’s why we need you to be the absolute king or queen of your niche – if we’re brainstorming ideas to grow your concept, we need you to be able to feedback on the logistics, positives and negatives of our input.

Mark McDermott, Founder and CEO of GoShow came to us with a brilliant idea, which you can read about in his interview here, however, for the purpose of this blog, his kicker was identified further down the line. Fortunately he is 100% knowledgeable about the film industry and was able to figure out the logistics to get the revised product to market and capitalise on the idea. So GoShow which was initially scoped out to create a global network of filmmakers covering every locality in the action sports industry, to create epic footage for brands. Their kicker is that they can go one step further and distribute the end video content via a vast media network of channels. A massive plus point for brands who can maximise the reach of their video content, far further than simply social media, and an incredible asset for Mark to capitalise on.

We’re here to take your idea to the next level. Read our criteria for investing and as we’ve said above, don’t panic if you can’t identify your kicker just yet, we can always help with that, just focus on being as knowledgeable as you can about your chosen niche and the rest will flow…

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About

Startup Giants is a UK-based startup accelerator that invests in tech startups in the UK at the pre-seed stage (also known as concept stage), then participates on subsequent seed and expansion rounds.

What’s Different?

Unlike other accelerators that require you to huddle together in a room for 4 months, we've tailored our mentoring to support talented entrepreneurs who need to keep their existing jobs a little while longer.

Accelerate

Twice a year, in the Spring and Autumn, we run an accelerator round and invest up to £100k in amazing consumer startups that have the potential to attract over 1m customers within the first 12 months from launch.